Citing liability and business competition concerns, Worcester County officials torpedoed a proposal to utilize fishing boats to shuttle Ocean City concertgoers across bay waters during the resort’s fall music festivals.
“Approving this assumes a duty of care for all the people that are going to be getting on this,” County Attorney Roscoe Leslie told the county commissioners at their meeting Tuesday. “These fishing boats will be basically used as ferries. So, we’ve got boats that are not designed to be ferries, on docks that are not designed for ferries, either.”
The request came from Tony Battista, of the charter boat service Saltwater Adventures. He sought permission to run a water taxi service from a public dock at the West Ocean City commercial fishing harbor during the Oceans Calling and Country Calling concerts.
In a June 1 letter to the county, he presented his idea to ferry concert guests across Isle of Wight Bay to the Angler restaurant on the Ocean City bayside. Each of 14 participating charter boats could take six passengers per 16-minute trip, and would lighten the load for event traffic and parking.
Battista planned to use West Ocean City hotels as a loading point for buses, whose passengers would be transported to the harbor for their boat ride. Hotels liked the idea, according to the letters of support he shared from hoteliers and the Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association.
By his own admission, it wouldn’t be the first time Battista operated an unsanctioned water taxi service during concert season.
They are trying to make OC
A year round resort.
Never will happen
OC lost its family resort name
Too many thugs playing pocket pool on the boards